The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Jul 24, 2011 at 4:36pm
Whenever you hear the words "We are not a Banana Republic" in Turkey, it pretty reliably means someone has just done something really banana-republican.
This is a generalizable rule, I'm afraid. When your politicians start insisting that you're not a Banana Republic, it means exactly the opposite:
"We expressed openness to two stages of cuts, but not to a short-term debt limit extension," a Democratic aide close to the negotiations said. "Republicans only want the debt ceiling extended as far as the cuts in each tranch. That means we’ll be right back where we are today a few months down the road. We are not a Banana Republic."
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Comments :
May '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
I'll bet banana republics have budgets.
Jan '11
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
A "Super Congress?!?"
What is wrong with these people?
You can smell the fear all the way to here.
Jul '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
I'll bet banana republics have budgets because We give them money.
Dec '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
No less an apt label would be Presidium (of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) or Politburo (of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union).
Apr '11
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
In a banana republic, a bunch of powerful politicians meet in a room, cut a deal (where they all benefit and screw everyone else) and then announce it to the world as they order their legislators to ram it through into law. Which is exactly what then happens.
In the deliberative republic that Madison tried to create in 1787, the people's representatives present their differing views openly in Congress (or the press) and, after public debate and Congressional votes, the nation's policy is decided -- subject to correction by next year's election.
Now which kind of republic do you suppose we have in 2011?
May '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
Charles Krauthammer invoked the banana republic analogy also: http://bit.ly/oBg7nu
He compared the current chief executive to a latin-american caudillo who summons the national legislature... Unfortunately, we have a chief executive who has forgotten, or never learned, that the legislative and executive branches are co-equals.
We thus appear to have a chief executive who has tried to make our republic into a banana republic, and we have, thank God, at least one legislative chamber which has wisely remembered the Constitution and James Madison.
Unless the Huffington Post is to believed, and House Speaker Boehner really is open to the "super-congress/central-committee/star-chamber/oligarchy" idea. Is he indeed? Say it ain't so! I hadn't thought about that facet of the McConnell Plan through, and it's pretty disturbing.
Edited on Jul 24, 2011 at 8:01pmMay '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
We give the Banana Republics a bad name sometimes.
Along the same lines, how do you think the Greeks felt when Obama said "We are not Greece"-- making their country a byword, essentially?
In fact, we are Greece-- in the sense Obama meant it. No-- we are worse than Greece. Our debt situation is far, far worse, and we haven't begun to grapple with it. We may not have the level of corruption and the crazy retirement policies that Greece has, but we're headed in that direction there also, whereas Greece has already started to turn back.
I like the concept you raise-- whenever someone in power says "We are not something" it's likely they're trying to deny reality.
"We are not going to default-- we're the United States of America. It's unthinkable." Well, you have another think coming. We will default at some point. It is now inevitable, not unthinkable. The default may come in the form of massive inflation, or in the more traditional way where we can't pay debts. But it's coming.
May '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
One of the things Honduras failed to do while the clown Zelaya was in power a few years ago was to pass a budget.
Another thing that happened is that the national debt, never healthy but at least somewhat stable at the time Zelaya was sworn in, ballooned uncontrollably under his watch. He spent on many questionable items, including funding for "community organizers" that went to work canvassing the country promoting his effort to start writing a new Constitution to allow him another term.
Any of the above sound familiar?
Last year when the Democrats failed to pass a budget, it really opened my eyes. And the way Obama was funneling money to ACORN and his other union supporters also smells of Zelaya- and Chavez-style corruption.
No, we are not really a Banana Republic. I doubt even Obama would have the Audacity to try to remove term limits or, heaven forbid, rewrite the Constitution-- our people wouldn't stand for it.
But give Honduras its due too. Zelaya got farther along than Obama ever will-- but true Honduran patriots stood up to him in a huge groundswell. The "Banana Party," anyone?
Oct '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
I wouldn't mind America becoming a banana republic quite so much if it came with rum and coconut drinks, white sand beaches, and grass skirts. The endless traffic jams, surly servers, and ugly public spaces aren't what I signed up for!
May '10
Re: The "We Are Not a Banana Republic" Test
Claire, I have spent a lot of years in "developing countries," including Istanbul in the early 70s when they did not even have a functioning phone system. I agree that the USA is not a Banana Republic. I think we have developed into something significantly worse.
At least "developing" BRs have a transparent honesty about their corruption and how things get done. I am investing in a couple of start up businesses in one, where despite the top to floor institutional corruption, the way forward and rules of play are straightforward.
The US on the other hand, has disguised and institutional corruption, coupled with smothering regulation and fiscal insanity. In addition it has become amazingly inept - to the point where it doesn't even handle crony capitalism in a reasonably efficient manner.
The transparency of a good Banana Republic is preferable to the sanctimoneous, incompetent dishonesty we currently enjoy.